Entertainment

The Incredible Story of a 5-Foot-5 Dunking Sensation [VIDEO]

Before the million YouTube views, before the LeBron James ad cameo, before the pro dunking career and the wide open future and the possible move to California, 22-year-old Porter Maberry of Grand Rapids, Mich. worked in a warehouse.

A talented but tiny high school baller, the 5-foot-5 Maberry was, by his own recollection, once a high-scoring guard who had scholarship offers to a couple small colleges. Then "a couple things happened in life" and that track was derailed. So he bounced around a bit, up in Michigan, still playing ball for fun.

Eventually working life consumed him. He fell into his warehouse job and stopped playing for a spell until about a year ago, when he decided to lace up his hooping shoes for the first time in months and play a little pickup.

Life hasn't been quite the same since.

"I jumped, and it just felt different — I could tell," Maberry remembers. "Everyone was looking at me, like, 'What have you been doing, dude?' But the answer was nothing. I'd just been working every day."

Maberry, it seemed, could fly.

He'd first managed to dunk as a 19-year-old — impressive enough for someone closer in height to Peter Dinklage than to the average NBA star — but this was different. He was dunking with one hand, two hands, off the bounce, and all with startling ease.

So he took his newfound hops to an organized dunk contest near Grand Rapids. He won, and a friend recorded a 13-second clip, which was posted to YouTube but received little notice.

From there, however, Maberry's story takes a series of fantastic, surreal twists that illustrate the digital world's strange economy and the seemingly endless ability of the Internet to create even the most unexpected realities.

Going Viral Overnight

Maberry tweeted that first video to Team Flight Brothers, an outfit that makes money by producing endlessly popular (and ad-supported) YouTube dunk porn, as well as putting on professional live dunking shows. Soon after, he did a dunk session for TFB, which was edited into a tight two-minute video (embedded at the top of this post).

The video was uploaded to YouTube on Sept. 25 and Maberry went to bed. But a funny thing happened — his phone kept buzzing with incoming texts. It wouldn't shut up. At 4 a.m. he awoke to messages telling him the video had hit 50,000 views. He went back to sleep. He woke up three hours later. The video had 100,000 views. Within days it had a million. Six weeks later, it's at 1.6 million.

The NBA season started about a month after Maberry's video — the video — hit YouTube. On the league's opening night, Samsung debuted a commercial for the Samsung Galaxy Note II starring basketball megastar LeBron James. About 55 seconds into the spot James is at the barber shop, red cape and all, when someone hands him a phone.

"Check this out," they say, and there's 5-foot-5 inch Porter Maberry, throwing down one of his incredible slam dunks. LeBron recoils in shock and pleasure.

"Oh!" LeBron says. "I gotta send that out, man."

But Maberry says he had no idea his video would appear in the ad. A cousin called him that day, shocked but ecstatic, and they looked it up online. Maberry saw the world's greatest basketball player watch him dunk and react like any teenager who'd stumbled upon the clip on YouTube. "My heart was pounding," he says.

Maberry says "legal issues" were quickly worked out, and now he draws a check every time the Samsung ad airs. But the ad brought more than income.

"Everyday I get it from friends or on Twitter: 'Hey! I seen your commercial!" Maberry says. "It's not my commercial but I'm in it, and everyone treats it like it's mine."

Just the Beginning?

When we spoke this week, Maberry was down in Los Angeles, where he's been stationed the past few weeks since blowing up online. Asked where he lives, he still says Michigan and that he's just weighing options in California. But judging by the pull in his voice — amazement at the weather and the allure of opportunity — a move West seems all but assured.

Maberry's working with veteran professional dunkers now, learning different ways to gather before jumping and how to throw the ball to pull off different tricks. An ad-supported video he did for BallIsLife (embedded below) has been viewed 100,000 times in three days. He's using the nom-de-dunk "What's Gravity" and says he's got a show lined up at the University of Louisville and is in talks with at least one NBA team for a similar gig. A 15-minute dunking exhibition, he says, can pull in $500 or $600.

While Maberry says he "could live off dunking now if I wanted to," that's not all he's up to — thanks to his viral YouTube video.

He's signed on with the And1 Live streetball tour; And1 brand president Rob Purvey says the company is "proud" to have him aboard. He'll also speak to school kids next year as part of a government anti-bullying initiative. And the LeBron ad led to a Screen Actors Guild certification, so he's looking into acting classes.

Not long ago, in L.A., Maberry went to the legendary pickup hoops courts at Venice Beach. After he threw down a couple wild dunks, other players ID'd him as "that dude from YouTube."

"It's crazy," Maberry says, giggling at the recollection. "I'm thousands of miles from home and here's these people recognizing me."

What's Hot

More in Entertainment

What's New

What's Rising

What's Hot

Mashable
is a leading source for news, information and resources for the Connected Generation. Mashable reports on the importance of digital innovation and how it empowers and inspires people around the world. Mashable's record 42 million unique visitors worldwide and 21 million social media followers are one of the most influential and engaged online communities. Founded in 2005, Mashable is headquartered in New York City with an office in San Francisco.